Mississippi State travels to Colonial Life Arena on Wednesday to take on South Carolina. Tipoff occurs at 7 p.m. EST and you can see it on ESPN3.com. The Bulldogs beat the Gamecocks 56-54 on Jan. 9 and are 6-0 against them over the last four years.

Both teams share 12th place in the conference.

In their last outing, behind 21 points and seven rebounds from Colin Borchert, the Bulldogs defeated Ole Miss 73-67 on Mar. 2. On top of a team-high 1.3 blocks per game, he also scores 8.4 points per game. For the Gamecocks, Michael Carrera put up 16 points and nine rebounds in the 74-56 loss to Texas A&M on Mar. 2. He is averaging 10.4 points per game in addition to a team-best 7.2 rebounds per game.

South Carolina has a statistical edge over Mississippi State in one specific area, scoring, where the Gamecocks have the upper hand over the Bulldogs, 66 points per game to 59.7 points per game. One category in which South Carolina is especially proficient is offensive rebounding percentage at 38.6, ranking second in their conference (and 17th nationally).

South Carolina StatSmack

Mississippi State is better under pressure, and has defeated South Carolina in seven out of the last nine games decided by five points or fewer.

Boom! Mississippi State defeated South Carolina by 2 points the last time they played (Jan 09, 2013).

Fred Thomas is ranked 9th in the SEC in steals.

The Mississippi State blocks leader (Colin Borchert, 32 blocks) has more blocks than the South Carolina blocks leader (Lakeem Jackson, 21 blocks).

AP voters think more highly of Mississippi State and ranked them in the AP Top 25 more often over the past 10 years than South Carolina (69 vs. 12).

Mississippi State has a stronger schedule than South Carolina this season (SOS Rank: No. 88 vs. No. 133).

Mississippi State has more NCAA Tournament appearances over the last 10 years than South Carolina (five vs. one).

Craig Sword is ranked 10th in the SEC in steals.

Mississippi State is taller. The average height of the top 8 players on Mississippi State is 76.8 inches compared to 75.0 inches for South Carolina.

Over the past 10 years, Mississippi State has had more players drafted by the NBA than South Carolina (five vs. one).